


Transparent

by Hyoushin



Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Cliche, Corny, F/M, Haise/Hinami, Manga Spoilers, Out of Character, WTF, chapter 7
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-25
Updated: 2014-11-25
Packaged: 2018-02-26 23:46:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2670866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyoushin/pseuds/Hyoushin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That night, in the park, there was a girl, and across the street, a young man who watched her intently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Transparent

**Author's Note:**

> The summary sounds like a kidnapper story.  
> My experimental phase isn't over it seems. Now it wants het. I have an insane love for Hinami. And now, she's seventeen, and stronger (I hope) so I'll ship her with Sasaneki without feeling too bad about it. Kanemi? Sasami? Salami?  
> Right. Sorry. Don't shoot me.
> 
> I couldn't shake off this tiny idea, so I wrote this quickly today. I'll come back to edit/proofread this. Or if someone spots something awful please let me know xD

 

The black coffee, which Haise had paid in a nearby café just a few minutes earlier, spilled onto his hand. The hot liquid scalded a patch of reddening skin on the back of his right hand. The pain boiling on the surface didn’t distract him.

His stare was firm and steady.

As his grip on the plastic cup loosened, and fell on the curb.

He crossed the street with a pace that was slow—slow to the point of being almost lethargic.

The plastic bottom hit the ground first. The swirling liquid remaining inside tilted the cup sideways. The brim bounced against the curb, splashing big black drops onto the sidewalk.

His feet led him towards the girl.

The cup rolled to the gutter, the dark beverage flowing into it as a thin black river.

She was leaning against the trunk of a Sakura tree. She had been there for a while, and she wasn’t moving at all, looking like a smartly dressed statue. Had someone glanced at her, they would have seen nothing out of the ordinary. The short locks of brown hair brushing her face, and the long branches populated with pale flowers shading her figure, seemed to conspire to conceal her tears. There was no one there to see her though, the park was deserted at this hour of the night.

As he approached her, he observed her forearms hugging her waist; her eyes scrunching up with drying tears; her teeth biting her lower lip; the deepening crease between her eyebrows. Naked grief was imprinting itself on her delicate features, stealing her youth, sucking it out of her.

Had she lost someone recently?

Haise didn’t know her and her painful circumstances, however, that didn’t prevent him from going into her flowered shelter. He put a hesitant hand on her shoulder, and this jolted her out of her black and sorrowful reverie. She raised her head in a sharp move, looking at him with wide and bright amber eyes. Her expression was one of intense shock.

“ _Brother,_ ” she said, her voice hoarse and small.

Haise didn’t quite caught what she said. He had been planning to ask her if there was something he could help her with. But he was soon dumbfounded, when she threw herself towards him, her body colliding against his. The impact surprisingly pushing him back a few steps.

“I knew it, I knew it. I knew you’d be back. I missed you so much.” Her arms had trapped his waist. She had buried her face in his chest.

Her words were being muffled by his white coat, but this time he could hear them clearly. What could he do now? This girl wasn’t in her right mind. His hypothesis, which assumed that someone close to her had passed away, proved to be true.

Haise sighed. If he was delayed any further, Shirazu and Urie would disappear and proceed with the investigation as usual: without his guidance.

It had been a miraculous happening. Tonight, both had acceded to work as a team, together with Mutsuki and himself (and Saiko, well, he still wasn’t sure if her moral support from her room counted). After the disastrous end of Torso’s attempted arrest, this was what they needed: proper teamwork. He had decided he would relentlessly pound that wonderful concept into their juvenile heads.

But—but he needed to deal with this—crisis—tricky situation first.

“Miss.” Haise said, trying to get her attention. He shifted his hands, aimless and fidgety around her, not knowing where to put them. “Please listen,” he scratched the back of his head, realizing he really was lost as to how to do this. He didn’t even have time to think about an effective course of action. Rotten luck—that was what he had.

“I’m not—you must be, ah, mistaken. So….” Lame. Even Akira said so. Well no. That wasn’t right. His mental representation of Akira was already pummeling him, stating he needed to be re-trained due to his disgraceful lameness and incompetence.

This couldn’t get any more embarrassing.

“Miss—” he tried again.

Haise was wrong. This could get more embarrassing.

The girl’s attention was suddenly upon him. Her solemn gaze created a semblance of serenity. All the tears had dried, but that didn’t mean all of the remnants of her distress had completely vanished. A magenta stripe was still drawn across her cheeks, and her eyes were somewhat glossy and pinkish around the edges.

She kept gazing at him, with a cryptic but restless gleam in her eyes. She was scanning his face, as an artist would with the body of a model. Her reason seemed to return, because she said after clearing her throat, “I’m really sorry. I didn’t—I wasn’t thinking. I…had an older brother once. You…resemble him.”

She smiled. And Haise was taken aback.

It was a smile overflowed by poignant sadness. Despite that, it held this incredibly stunning honesty behind it.

Dark, plump clouds glided away, and the moon was revealed, white light falling upon her face.

She had an authentic, pure and brilliant beauty, which he wouldn’t dare to measure. A warm, and overwhelming feeling was beginning to coil inside of him. A mystic feeling that conveyed a sense of tender familiarity, and deep, undeniable affection. Important things had a habit of disappearing when morning came, so he seized this feeling, which resonated within him, and tied it to his mind.

A strange, pressing need impelled him to ask, “what’s your name?” forgetting about the strong hold on his waist, and the furtive arm that had slid around her back.

“Tell me.” He said, brushing soft brown strands of her hair. Had he already done something like this? To someone else? No. To her? Yes. Yes, he had—no. No, he hadn’t met her before. Sasaki Haise hadn’t met her before. So, she was, she was—what was she?

It was suffocating him, the urge to _know_.

She opened her mouth, muttering, “Hinami.”

And her voice, and her name, the sound of her name tugged at something indescribable—some stagnant mass of power—which was better left untouched. An emerging headache was warning him to halt this destructive foolishness immediately. Or he would snap. Again. _Snap_. What was that sound? A dead twig. A crisp leaf. A bent finger.

The room quaked. Fissures ran across the monochromatic walls.

_Ready?_

It wanted to get out. It was screaming. It was scratching at the door.

_You ready?_

Obscure voices; the echoing voices were fracturing his skull.

_Are you ready?_

No? I don’t know.

“Sasaki-san!” she exclaimed.

“Sasaki-san!” she exclaimed again, anxiety coloring her tone, her hands had released his waist, and were now pulling and crumpling the lapels of his coat. Haise narrowed his eyes, set his jaw, and, for a brief moment, an expression akin to anguish contorted his face.

“What’s wrong? Is there something I can do…?” she tailed off, unsure on how to continue.

“No.” He said, waving quickly an ice-cold sweaty hand. “I’m just—I’m probably coming down with something. That’s all.” He finally took notice of the arm that was still tightly wrapped around her back, and the short improper distance between their faces. He abruptly backed away from her, adding some decent inches between them. A silly faint blush burned his cheeks, and the tips of ears.

Should he leave? Say something? She even looked a tad scared, and he didn’t blame her. They were in a park, at night, alone, and he was a stranger acting in an unusual way. Great. She must be itching to run away.

“It’s getting really late and it’s pretty cold and…maybe…you should go home.” He said, wincing internally at how socially inept he sounded. What was wrong with him? She was just a girl. And he was an adult now. A respectable adult who had survived Akira’s special trainings made in hell. A responsible and well-read man that had rebellious little ducklings under his wing to take care of.

So, the feeling he had, while being pinned down by that keen amber gaze, was not nervousness. No. It was not.

“You’re right. I should…go. I’m sorry for troubling you.” She bowed. “Thank you.” She smiled at him once more. Traces of lingering gloom were hovering over her smile, but somehow, it was a little bit more alive, a little bit more hopeful. The girl turned around.

“Wait!” Haise said. Before she could turn to face him, he dug into his pocket, and produced a light green handkerchief. “Here,” he extended his hand towards her. “Just in case—if you need it.”

She took the handkerchief with carefulness, looking contemplative as she did so. “You’re kind, Sasaki-san. You did help me,” she said softly, “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

Haise watched her, as she walked away. He watched her, until her body faded into the dark.

He didn’t realize he had never mentioned his name to her.

 

 

 

 


End file.
